Today marks both the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the anniversary of the Iowa Supreme Court Varnum v. Brien decision.

These are the words of Dr. King one day before he was killed by an assassin.

“Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.”

– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Memphis, TN, April 3, 1968

Four years ago today the Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Mark S. Cady:

“‘Our responsibility, however, is to protect constitutional rights of individuals from legislative enactments that have denied those rights, even when the rights have not yet been broadly accepted, were at one time unimagined, or challenge a deeply ingrained practice or law viewed to be impervious to the passage of time.’

The Court noted that Iowa has a long history of progressive thought on civil rights. Seventeen years before the Dred Scott decision, the Iowa Supreme Court “refused to treat a human being as property to enforce a contract for slavery and held our laws must extend equal protection to persons of all races and conditions.” Eighty-six years before “separate but equal” was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled such practices unconstitutional in Iowa. In 1869, Iowa was the first state in the union to admit women to the bar and allow them to practice law.”

Today, Iowans can be proud that our state has advanced the cause of equality for Iowa and the nation.